As an ever-increasing amount of information is being made available electronically, typically over networks such as the Internet, it is increasingly difficult to locate information or other content that is of interest to a user. Many conventional systems utilize search engines that accept keywords or other types of queries from a user, and return results that most closely match the query. Oftentimes users do not enter precise queries, which results in the set of results being over-inclusive, forcing the user to navigate through many results before locating the items of interest. Further, a user might specify more than one keyword or other search criterion, but has no way of indicating a relative importance of each of those criteria. In other conventional systems, users are able to browse through information, such as by navigating through several levels of categories or pages of electronic catalogs. The user is typically only able to see one page or category at a time, which can make it difficult or at least time consuming to navigate the various options.
Conventional approaches also can be difficult for a user when the user attempts to compare various instances of content, particularly where those results are on different pages or portions of a page that cannot readily be displayed simultaneously on a display screen. A user can attempt to refine queries, open additional windows, or perform other such operations, but such displays of information can be overly complicated and can make it difficult for a user to maintain context and be able to return to a previous result state if desired. Further, some information such as product ratings or specifications might only be contained on specific product pages or display pages, for example, such that a user must open multiple pages at the same time to compare various aspects of specific search results. Such approaches can be particularly problematic for mobile devices and other computing devices that have relatively small display screens, such that a user cannot easily view more than one page at a time. Further, the user often has no way of determining which and/or how many instances of content were excluded by the use of specific keywords or other criteria.